


Those who Favor Fire

by Harukami



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-16
Updated: 2007-01-16
Packaged: 2017-11-05 18:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/409566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <br/><p><b>Those Who Favor Fire</b><br/>
Digital Devil Saga<br/>
Sort of Heat-->Serph, Heat-->Sera-ish?<br/>
Only mostly safe for work (mild vore warning?), spoilers to the end of DDS1. Also being written without me having finished DDS2 yet but HEY.<br/>
~1200 words</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those who Favor Fire

Heat remembers it like so:

Everything had been going smoothly and then Serph's out and moving. That's not in the plan and he feels himself tense with a nearly incandescent rage. "Dumbass!" he shouts. "Stay under cover!"

But Serph stands there, calm, and just fires. Maybe he's seen a clear shot at Harley, who the hell knows, but he ignores the strategy Gale set out, he ignores Argilla's almost ritual advice to remember that he is the only one of them who's important, he ignores the whole point of Cielo dashing between cover and risking his skinny ass to distract fire away from Serph. Just stands there and fires and there's nothing to do but run out there himself to take out the people Heat can't fucking see from behind his own cover. Run out, duck behind smaller rocks when he can find them, and fire on the Vanguard assholes who're firing on Serph. Bam. _Bam_. He follows the arc of blood from one guy's throat and licks his lips. _Bam_. Die, you bastards, don't get in that one lucky shot!

He can't imagine himself working for anyone else -- though he does wonder briefly whether, if he throttles Serph later, he'll get made leader.

\--But he doesn't remember whether or not he even yelled at Serph after all that, so he figures he probably didn't actually get that worked up when it actually happened.

***

He rends the flesh with his teeth, tears off scraps with his fingers, swallows hard. He's the first to eat and he hears Argilla talking behind him, her voice high and disgusted and maybe a bit terrified. Whatever. This is how it should be now and he's been so damn hungry and it's so damn good. He can't remember a time he's felt this great, energy and pleasure coursing through him and even if he can't remember a lot of things, that's still pretty significant.

And then a body settles in next to him and he looks over to bare his teeth with blood smeared across his face.

Serph looks back with distant silvery eyes and reaches down, tears a scrap free from Heat's kill with his fingers. He holds it in his hand for a moment, as if considering, and the blood pools in his hands, seems to get into the tiny wrinkles in his palm there, spread out like the network of light that gathers when they transform now. And then he looks at Heat again and raises his hand to his mouth, bites down on the torn off chunk of muscle, chews as blood runs off his hand and drips down his wrist, soaking into his sleeve.

Heat almost snarls at him again; that was his, goddammit, but if he can't share this what can he share. He turns his shoulder against Serph as if to shove him out of the way and doesn't, then ducks forward again and tears with his teeth.

***

Betray Serph?

It's a stupid idea, he thinks. Only an idiot would think that. If he were the kind who would betray their leader he'd have done it years ago because only somebody loyal, like it or not, could put up with Serph being Serph all the time.

Sure, Serph is a horrible leader. Sure, Serph walks them into traps and gets them into trouble. Sure -- Sure, Heat's pretty sure Sera likes him more than Heat and that twists his gut and makes him hungry and sick at the same time with a burning that rises in his throat, gets swallowed down, and settles like a hollow ache in his chest.

But Serph's his, Serph's theirs, Serph's the goddamn Embryon, and even if Serph maybe shouldn't be -- Heat'd do it better, he's sure of that much -- he's _Serph_. Fighting him there is a weird fucking feeling. Watching Varna lower his head and take it as Heat runs forward and beats him around, flings him into walls and the floor and shit you goddamn bastard, fuck you, you idiot, get up, get up, fight back, be stronger than this, don't just take it don't just let me fucking hurt you--

It's almost embarrassing to have to tell Serph the plan, and his relief when Serph grabs his fist on the next swing and counters is maybe more embarrassing.

But he's doing it for Sera, anyway, to get the chance to save her, and he's doing it for the Embryon and.

Besides.

Take Bat's deal? Whatever. It's not like he'd ever bargain with _dinner_.

***

Can't you see that his sympathy and his care isn't a source of strength, he doesn't shout. He wants to grab her; his hands do it before he can think about anything else.

"You're hurting me!"

But he can't let go because she's warm and solid in his hands and the ache in his chest is spreading everywhere. Even if you love him more, _I_ love _you_ more! He wants to shake her, he wants to

kiss

her and even if he doesn't know what that is, he does, he does, he knows what he wants and he knows he has to outrace Serph for it and he knows he can't stop running now, he knows he can't stop now and why does it hurt so much when she runs away, why does he feel an ache like something's been pulled out of him and left him with a bleeding gap in the middle where something else should be?

***

They can't leave her! They have to go after her!

And Serph nods

And they go.

***

That light is their only hope. If they can get there now. If they can reach it, maybe they'll live. Living is, in the end, it's the only real thing, it's the only real chance. Where there's life--

"No!" Sera screams, and Heat stops at once, wheels around. She's crying. "Serph!"

Heat looks over and there Serph is, scrambling across crumbling rock, refusing to give up, gaze focussed on them, on Sera and Heat as he runs and

Horror even as he thinks it that feeling again, that fucking feeling, what is that feeling--

"He's not going to make it," Heat says and he's choking on it, he's choking on the feeling as the world goes white.

 

 

 

  
_Some say the world will end in fire,_  
Some say in ice.  
From what I've tasted of desire  
I hold with those who favor fire.  
But if it had to perish twice,  
I think I know enough of hate  
To say that for destruction ice  
Is also great  
And would suffice.  
\- Robert Frost


End file.
